New Delhi, Aug 29 (IANS) — An international team of researchers from India, Australia, the US, and the UK has developed an innovative online tool designed to revolutionise hypertension care by helping doctors tailor treatment based on how much patients need to lower their blood pressure.
The “blood pressure treatment efficacy calculator,” built using data from nearly 500 randomised clinical trials involving over 100,000 participants, allows clinicians to estimate how different drugs — and their combinations — are likely to reduce blood pressure.
“Controlling hypertension effectively requires knowing not just the target, but also the most efficient way to reach it,” said Dr. Mohammad Abdul Salam of The George Institute for Global Health, Hyderabad. “While guidelines define the target BP, our tool identifies which drugs and doses are best suited for each patient.”
Research shows a single antihypertensive drug typically reduces systolic blood pressure by only 8–9 mmHg, whereas most patients require reductions of 15–30 mmHg to reach safe levels. Traditionally, doctors adjust medication based on individual blood pressure readings, but these are often too variable to provide consistent guidance.
The new calculator, described in The Lancet, addresses this challenge by using large-scale trial data to predict average treatment effects. It categorises drugs into low, moderate, and high intensity — an approach already common in cholesterol management.
Hypertension, often called a “silent killer,” affects about 1.3 billion people worldwide and causes an estimated 10 million deaths annually through complications such as heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure. Alarmingly, fewer than one in five patients currently have their blood pressure under control.
